Zuma Faces New Charges [Sunday Times, 2005-08-21]

Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2005-08-21 Reporter: Wisani wa ka Ngobeni Reporter: Dumisane Lubisi Reporter: Dominic Mahlangu

Zuma Faces New Charges

Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2005-08-21
Reporter	Wisani wa ka Ngobeni, Dumisane Lubisi, Dominic Mahlangu
Web link	www.sundaytimes.co.za

Scorpions will try to prove axed deputy president lied to Parliament and fiddled his tax returns

An affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court by Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy said the Scorpions’ investigation of Zuma had never stopped. It had continued even during Shaik’s trial

The Scorpions are investigating new charges of fraud and tax evasion against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who already faces two counts of corruption.

Details of the web of financial transactions under scrutiny are contained in a 180-page submission made by the Scorpions to Judge Bernard Ngoepe on Friday last week.

The documents argued for a massive, nationwide raid on people and premises linked to Zuma. The Sunday Times has established that a total of 21 residences, offices and other premises in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga were raided by dozens of Scorpions investigators this Thursday.

In dramatic early-morning raids, the Scorpions swooped on Zuma’s new home in Forest Town, Johannesburg, and his traditional homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. In an unprecedented move the Scorpions also searched the presidency and executive residence at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and Tuynhuys in Cape Town.

The Scorpions undertook the raids after top investigators persuaded Scorpions boss Vusi Pikoli to ratchet up the Zuma investigation to include sweeping new fraud and tax charges.

Among the allegations the Scorpions are seeking to prove are that Zuma:

Made fraudulent declarations to Parliament and the Cabinet about payments and benefits he received from Durban businessman Schabir Shaik; and
Contravened the Income Tax Act when he submitted tax returns to the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

The Scorpions decided to expand their investigation of Zuma 13 days ago to include “all sources of Zuma’s funding”.

When the Scorpions swooped on the 21 premises all linked to Zuma and his associates on Thursday they were looking for:

Diaries of Zuma and his associates going back to 1995;
Faxes, e-mails and other documents related to Zuma’s visits to Malaysia, including any business generated in favour of Shaik and the Nkobi group of companies as a result of such visits;
Any documentation of Zuma’s movements and engagements including travel plans, flight records and credit card records;
Records of Zuma’s bank accounts and liabilities;
Details of foreign bank accounts held by Zuma, Shaik or any of Shaik’s Nkobi companies or the French arms giant Thomson, now known as Thales;
Documentation related to construction of Zuma’s Nkandla home;
Any financial records, including cash books, in connection with payments made on behalf of Zuma’s family members by Shaik;
Records related to Shaik’s or Zuma’s tax returns; and
E-mails, faxes, computer entries or documentation related to any gift, payment by Shaik or any of the Nkobi companies.

The Scorpions also want answers about Zuma’s financial dealings with Durban businessman Vivian Reddy, well-connected Johannesburg businessman Jurgen Kögl and his friend Nora Fakude-Nkuna, an Mpumalanga businesswoman.

Reddy and Fakude-Nkuna made a number of payments amounting to more than R300 000 to the builder of Zuma’s Nkandla home. Kögl’s company, Cay Nominees, paid R600 000 for partial settlement of a bond over Zuma’s property in Killarney, Johannesburg.

Scorpions investigators believe that payments made by Reddy and Kögl on behalf of Zuma were linked to Thomson/Thales.

Thales which won the bid for a R6-billion contract to supply the South African Navy with four new corvette warships is at the centre of the bribe solicited for Zuma by Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

Thales’s local arm, Thint, was initially charged with Shaik, but the charge against it was withdrawn. The Scorpions, however, have reopened an investigation against Thint.

The two corruption charges now being faced by Zuma relate to the same facts on which the conviction of Shaik and his Nkobi companies was based.

Shaik was found guilty of two counts of corruption and one of fraud. Judge Hilary Squires found that Shaik and Zuma had a “generally corrupt relationship”.

Judge Squires’s damning judgment forced President Thabo Mbeki to fire Zuma.

An affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court by Scorpions investigator Johan du Plooy said the Scorpions’ investigation of Zuma had never stopped. It had continued even during Shaik’s trial.

Du Plooy said the court’s finding on the Shaik matter “strongly support the conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Zuma and Thales were complicit in the commission of the offences in respect of which Shaik and other accused were convicted ... the corruption charges and alternative money-laundering charge”.

Zuma has denied any wrongdoing. He contends that payments made by Shaik on his behalf were part of a loan agreement between him and Shaik.

Zuma also denies that he met the former head of Thales in South Africa, Alain Thetard, on March 11 2000 as alleged in the famous encrypted fax, a key exhibit at Shaik’s trial.

Although Zuma admitted that he might have met representatives of Thales in Paris and South Africa, he contends that only general matters related to his official portfolios would have been discussed.

But Du Plooy insists that “the unambiguous evidence in respect of Count 3 [in the Shaik trial] suggests that Zuma agreed to provide protection to Thomson concerning the impending official investigations concerning the arms deal.

“This presupposes that there was some preceding irregularity in respect of which Thales/Thomson considered that it needed protection.”

In his defence, Shaik insisted that the series of payments he made to and on behalf of Zuma between 1995 and 2000 “constituted either loans to Zuma or donations to the ANC”. He said that the payments were not given corruptly.

Du Plooy said Judge Squires’s judgment in the Shaik case “made it obvious that an agreement concerning the request for a bribe and its payments in accordance with the false service-provider agreement included the complicity of at least Thetard and his superiors *1 in France and Mauritius”.

With acknowledgements to Wisani wa ka Ngobeni, Dumisane Lubisi, Dominic Mahlangu and the Sunday Times.

*1 Including one Yann de Jomaron who is to this day still a director of African Defence Systems (Pty) Ltd (ADS).

Does ADS have all of its shareholder and board meetings out of the country, or does de Jomaron exercise his fiduciary duties at ADS by means of an alternate director or by proxy.

Otherwise arrest this weevil and bring him and Thomson-CSF to justice.